View from the Cab: All eyes on weather

(Eric Snodgrass speaks to a group of farmers last week in the area)

By Kent Casson

Any time a weather guy speaks to a room full of farmers, I am all ears and usually they are too.

Weather is always something that seems to fascinate us in everyday conversations but it is especially critical for those of us in agriculture. We need to know when the rain will fall or when an opportunity for fieldwork may come.

Eric Snodgrass, chief atmospheric scientist at Nutrien, spoke to a group of farmers last week during the Vermilion Headwaters Watershed field day near Fairbury. He connected weather to production agriculture and even provided a fall outlook.

According to Snodgrass, the U.S. has a unique geographic design and is very similar to Argentina with mountains running through the nation. These mountains produce low pressure systems that draw from the Gulf of Mexico. While the U.S. and Argentina have great productivity, the Bermuda High is critical to a farmer’s success.

“We can be completely self-sustaining with food, fiber and feed production," explained Snodgrass.

This year, we have had a wild swing in precipitation patterns. In fact, it is even wetter than 1993. Research has shown our risk of severe weather is increasing year after year and there has been an increase in the frequency of tornadoes throughout the entirety of the Mississippi Basin.

Nearly the entire Corn Belt has been an increase in precipitation totals in the April through October period since 1980. We are transpiring more moisture into the atmosphere. Since 1980 in Illinois, we’ve seen a doubling of times we have two inches or more of rain in a 24-hour period.

“Our temperature trend of maximum temperatures is flat,” said Snodgrass.

In about 30 years down the road, Snodgrass is worried about overnight temperatures in July and he predicts we could be planting as soon as late March or early April down the road.